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Installation > Step 2 - Install instructions > CentOS/RHEL (RPM)
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Installing ThingsBoard Edge on CentOS/RHEL Server

ThingsBoard Edge and ThingsBoard Server versions compatibility rules:

  • ThingsBoard Edge version X.Y.Z is compatible with ThingsBoard Server version X.Y.Z and above.
  • ThingsBoard Edge version X.Y.Z is NOT compatible with ThingsBoard Server versions below X.Y.Z.

Example: ThingsBoard Edge version 3.3.4.1 is compatible with ThingsBoard server version 3.3.4.1 and above (3.4.0, 3.4.1, …). ThingsBoard Edge version 3.4.0 is NOT compatible with ThingsBoard server version 3.3.4.1 or below (3.3.4, 3.3.3, …). ThingsBoard Server 3.3.4.1 or below should be upgraded to ThingsBoard Server 3.4.0 or above first.

Please make sure that ThingsBoard Server is updated to the latest version before proceed.

This guide describes how to install ThingsBoard Edge on RHEL/CentOS 7/8.

Prerequisites

ThingsBoard Cloud server

To start using ThingsBoard Edge you need to have ThingsBoard server that supports edge functionality up and running.

The easiest way is to use Live Demo server.
The alternative option is to install ThingsBoard Community Edition server that supports edge functionality on-premise. Please visit Install CE to install 3.3 version or higher of server that supports edge functionality.

Edge provision on cloud

Additionally, you will need to provision ThingsBoard Edge on cloud server. Please follow Step 1 first if you skipped it.

Once ThingsBoard Edge provisioned on cloud server please follow installation steps below.

Edge hardware requirements

Hardware requirements depend on an amount of devices connected to the edge and GUI usage locally.

To run ThingsBoard Edge without heavily usage of GUI (local dashboards, device management etc.) and relatively small amount of devices (under 100) on a single machine you will need at least 1GB of RAM.

To run ThingsBoard Edge with heavily usage of GUI (local dashboards, device management etc.) and with 100+ devices on a single machine we recommend having at least 4GB of RAM.

Pre-installation step

Before continue to installation execute the following commands in order to install necessary tools:

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sudo yum install -y nano wget
sudo yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Step 1. Install Java 11 (OpenJDK)

ThingsBoard service is running on Java 11. Follow this instructions to install OpenJDK 11:

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sudo yum install java-11-openjdk

Please don’t forget to configure your operating system to use OpenJDK 11 by default. You can configure which version is the default using the following command:

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sudo update-alternatives --config java

You can check the installation using the following command:

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java -version

Expected command output is:

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openjdk version "11.0.xx"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (...)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build ...)

Step 2. Configure PostgreSQL

ThingsBoard Edge uses PostgreSQL database as a local storage.

Instructions listed below will help you to install PostgreSQL.

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# Update your system
sudo yum update

For CentOS 7:

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# Install the repository RPM (for CentOS 7):
sudo yum -y install https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/reporpms/EL-7-x86_64/pgdg-redhat-repo-latest.noarch.rpm
# Install packages
sudo yum -y install epel-release yum-utils
sudo yum-config-manager --enable pgdg12
sudo yum install postgresql12-server postgresql12
# Initialize your PostgreSQL DB
sudo /usr/pgsql-12/bin/postgresql-12-setup initdb
sudo systemctl start postgresql-12
# Optional: Configure PostgreSQL to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql-12

For CentOS 8:

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# Install the repository RPM (for CentOS 8):
sudo yum -y install https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/reporpms/EL-8-x86_64/pgdg-redhat-repo-latest.noarch.rpm
# Install packages
sudo dnf -qy module disable postgresql
sudo dnf -y install postgresql12 postgresql12-server
# Initialize your PostgreSQL DB
sudo /usr/pgsql-12/bin/postgresql-12-setup initdb
sudo systemctl start postgresql-12
# Optional: Configure PostgreSQL to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql-12

Once PostgreSQL is installed you may want to create a new user or set the password for the the main user. The instructions below will help to set the password for main postgresql user

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sudo su - postgres
psql
\password
\q

Then, press “Ctrl+D” to return to main user console.

After configuring the password, edit the pg_hba.conf to use MD5 authentication with the postgres user.

Edit pg_hba.conf file:

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sudo nano /var/lib/pgsql/12/data/pg_hba.conf

Locate the following lines:

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# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            ident

Replace ident with md5:

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host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5

Finally, you should restart the PostgreSQL service to initialize the new configuration:

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sudo systemctl restart postgresql-12.service

Connect to the database to create ThingsBoard Edge DB:

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psql -U postgres -d postgres -h 127.0.0.1 -W

Execute create database statement

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CREATE DATABASE tb_edge;
\q

Step 3. ThingsBoard Edge service installation

Download installation package.

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wget https://github.com/thingsboard/thingsboard-edge/releases/download/v3.4.3/tb-edge-3.4.3.rpm

Go to the download repository and install ThingsBoard Edge service

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sudo rpm -Uvh tb-edge-3.4.3.rpm

Step 4. Configure ThingsBoard Edge

Edit ThingsBoard Edge configuration file

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sudo nano /etc/tb-edge/conf/tb-edge.conf

Update the following lines in the configuration file. Don’t forget to replace:

  • “PUT_YOUR_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HERE” with your real postgres user password.

  • “PUT_YOUR_CLOUD_IP” with an IP address of the machine where ThingsBoard server is running:

    • Use demo.thingsboard.io if you are connecting edge to ThingsBoard Live Demo for evaluation.

    • Use localhost in case edge is running on the same machine where cloud instance is running.
    • Use X.X.X.X IP address in case edge is connecting to the cloud instance in the same network or in the docker.
  • “PUT_YOUR_EDGE_KEY_HERE” and “PUT_YOUR_EDGE_SECRET_HERE” with Edge key and secret respectively (edge credentials you can find in cloud instance):
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# UNCOMMENT NEXT LINES AND PUT YOUR CLOUD CONNECTION SETTINGS:
# export CLOUD_ROUTING_KEY=PUT_YOUR_EDGE_KEY_HERE
# export CLOUD_ROUTING_SECRET=PUT_YOUR_EDGE_SECRET_HERE

# UNCOMMENT NEXT LINES IF EDGE CONNECTS TO CE 'DEMO.THINGSBOARD.IO' SERVER:
# export CLOUD_RPC_HOST=demo.thingsboard.io

# UNCOMMENT NEXT LINES IF YOU CHANGED DEFAULT CLOUD RPC HOST/PORT SETTINGS:
# export CLOUD_RPC_HOST=PUT_YOUR_CLOUD_IP
# export CLOUD_RPC_PORT=7070

# UNCOMMENT NEXT LINES IF YOU ARE RUNNING EDGE ON THE SAME MACHINE WHERE THINGSBOARD SERVER IS RUNNING:
# export HTTP_BIND_PORT=18080
# export MQTT_BIND_PORT=11883
# export COAP_BIND_PORT=15683
# export LWM2M_ENABLED=false

# UNCOMMENT NEXT LINES IF YOU HAVE CHANGED DEFAULT POSTGRESQL DATASOURCE SETTINGS:
# export SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/tb_edge
# export SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME=postgres
# export SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD=PUT_YOUR_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HERE

If ThingsBoard Edge is going to be running on the same machine where ThingsBoard server (cloud) is running, you’ll need to update additional configuration parameters to avoid port collision between ThingsBoard server and ThingsBoard Edge.

Please uncomment next parameters in ThingsBoard Edge configuration file (/etc/tb-edge/conf/tb-edge.conf):
export HTTP_BIND_PORT=18080
export MQTT_BIND_PORT=11883
export COAP_BIND_PORT=15683
export LWM2M_ENABLED=false

Please make sure ports above (18080, 11883, 15683) are not used by any other application.

Step 5. Run installation script

Once ThingsBoard Edge is installed and configured please execute the following install script:

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sudo /usr/share/tb-edge/bin/install/install.sh

Step 6. Restart ThingsBoard Edge service

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sudo service tb-edge restart

Step 7. Open ThingsBoard Edge UI

Once started, you will be able to open ThingsBoard Edge UI using the following link http://localhost:8080.

Use next ThingsBoard Edge UI link http://localhost:18080 if you updated HTTP 8080 bind port to 18080.

Please use your tenant credentials from local cloud instance or ThingsBoard Live Demo to log in to the ThingsBoard Edge.

Troubleshooting

ThingsBoard Edge logs are stored in the following directory:

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/var/log/tb-edge

You can issue the following command in order to check if there are any errors on the service side:

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cat /var/log/tb-edge/tb-edge.log | grep ERROR

Start edge service:

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sudo service tb-edge start

Stop edge service:

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sudo service tb-edge stop

Restart edge service:

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sudo service tb-edge restart

Check status of ThingsBoard Edge service:

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sudo service tb-edge status

Next Steps

Congratulations! You have successfully provisioned, installed and connected ThingsBoard Edge to ThingsBoard server.

You can continue with Getting started guide to get the basic knowledge of ThingsBoard Edge or you can jump directly to more advanced topics: